k-strat

Snow in the burg

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:57:00 +0000

It snowed last night in Williamsburg - first snow they've seen all year, I think! Chris was in a meeting yesterday afternoon and some of the people started taking pictures on their phones out the window. You can tell snow is kind of a once in a year occurrence around here. It was pretty sunny this morning which is a good thing because I didn't see a plow/salt truck anywhere and our street was pretty iced over. Of course, the roads that where being driven on were melting down a bit.

The other reason you can tell that snow is a rare occurrence here is because where Chris and I grew up, this amount of snow wouldn't even cause a delay of school, yet when we got to church this morning, this is what the parking lot looked like:

Empty. I guess snow keeps everyone indoors! It is already melting away so I'm glad I got to enjoy it last night and this morning while we had it.

Also, we found out that we either have a cat, raccoon, or some other type of small animal visiting up during the night. I heard meowing the other day when I was home but I couldn't find the source. I really hope it's a cat and not some other weird animal.

Casualty of the move and an attic

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:27:00 +0000

The unpacking/setting up in the apartment is going well, but a little bit slower than expected due to life...oh well! Pictures will be forthcoming; hopefully sooner rather than later. The only thing we've found thus far that's been broken in the move is my trusty, old coffeepot. A big crack somehow formed spanning the entire bottom of the carafe, and sadly, Chris only found that out after brewing coffee and coming back in the kitchen to find the coffee leaked all over the counter. We're not sure how this happened, but I suppose it was time. I bought the coffeepot for $14 after coming back from Germany my junior year in college. Germany's afternoon tradition of having kaffeeklatsch hooked me and the rest is history.

Farewell to my old coffeepot - it served well for the last five or six years. We now have a new, (hopefully) trusty coffeepot that will serve us for the next five or six years.

In other apartment news, we have a new feature in this place that we've not had in our previous condo, house, or apartment: an attic! It is quite handy because we can throw lots of stuff up there that we don't need on a regular basis (our moving boxes and bags, Christmas decorations, etc.). I was a little creeped out by the attic at first, but it has now proved its use and I am happy with it. Plus, it is significantly less creepy than our old basement at the Farmville house.

And it has the added benefit of reminding me of the movie Christmas Vacation every time Chris pulls down the collapsible ladder and heads up there.

Vineyard walk

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:02:00 +0000

One of our last evenings in the Vineyards, we took a walk through the neighborhood around the loop we had been making the last six weeks. It was such a pretty walk and I wanted to make it one last time. The pictures make it seem like it was later than it was, but it was dusky when we set out.

None of the vines had any grapes on them yet, but over the last couple weeks, we had been seeing people out there each morning and evening getting them ready for the season.

I've always thought that it would be fun to work or volunteer at a winery and learn more about the process. I know there's a lot of hard work that goes into it, so maybe one day when I've got lots of time on my hands again I'll check into it :)

Also, I don't think I ever posted a picture of the house in which we were staying the last few weeks, so here it is:

It reminds me very much of Williamsburg, which is probably what they were going for when they built it years ago, so I suppose they did a good job :)

Norfolk

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:48:00 +0000

We (but really only Chris) moved all our furniture into the apartment this weekend and we are in the process of unpacking and setting everything up - so no pictures yet since the place is still pretty messy. I did, however, come across this picture I took last summer of someone moving into our old apartment complex back in Farmville. Instead of walking their stuff out of the truck, around the corner, and through the front door, they put the truck's walkway up over the balcony and pushed their stuff into the apartment. Pretty creative, if you ask me, and it probably saved their backs a bunch of work. I wanted to remember for the next time we moved, in case we had a similar balcony set-up for our move...our stuff ended up coming in the front door again, though :)

In the meantime, while waiting for pictures of the apartment, you can enjoy these pictures from Norfolk:

We went to Norfolk last weekend for a basketball game/event for Chris' work and since we didn't have quite enough time to drive to the beach, we walked down to the river so I could at least see some sand. The event went really well, but the Tribe ended up losing the game. We had a great day though despite that!

Our new place!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:28:00 +0000

We finally signed a lease! We have been looking around pretty diligently for the last month to find the best deal for our budget at the moment and made our decision this past weekend. We'll start moving our stuff over during this week, and Chris plans on finding a truck to move our furniture over this weekend. Hopefully by the end of the weekend we will have everything over there and then can start unpacking and settling in! Here is a picture of the outside:

(Sorry for the quality, I actually haven't taken any pictures, so this is one Chris sent me from his phone when he went to see it the first time.)

We've got two bedrooms and two bathrooms, so as always, we would love any of you family and friends to come visit. You are more than welcome! If you would like our new address, leave a comment below or send me an email and I'll be sure to get it to you.

January, but not that cold

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:35:00 +0000

I haven't been great about updating this recently, but that's because I haven't had much to update! We are spending our weeks focused on work and school and our weekends focused on finding a place to live. We are getting close to making a decision (as we should be, since the owners of this house come back next week!) so soon we will have to find a new hobby to take up our weekends :)

Chris's mom, sisters, and one of his sister's boyfriend came down to visit last weekend. We had a great day (despite the rain) eating ice cream, walking through colonial Williamsburg, and watching the Tribe play at home.

(We went to Bruster's and I had Peanut Butter Puddles and Heavenly Hash for flavors. In case you were interested, they were both delicious)

On tap for this weekend? Watching the Tribe play in Norfolk, walking though the vineyard (while we still have the chance!), and enjoying having a garage door opener for a few more days!

Natural Bridge

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:19:00 +0000

Last weekend Chris and I found ourselves passing through Natural Bridge, VA - a place I had never been before but definitely sounded interesting enough. Via a minor detour from the highway, we caught a glimpse of one of the 7 wonders of Natural Bridge, VA: Foamhenge (not to be confused with Stonehenge).

As if that weren't exciting enough, by pure chance, we were able to see the Natural Bridge without having to pay the $16 fee. It was quite beautiful! There was surprisingly a lot to do in the area (things which I imagine that $16 contributes to - zoos, museums, etc., but as we didn't have much time on our hands and it was probably close to freezing temperatures outside, we didn't do any of them).

Once we got back home that evening, I noticed that a painting to the left of the front door of the house we are "sitting" is actually a painting of the Natural Bridge! Perhaps this place holds a special significance for the people who own this house - who knows! Anyway, it was an enjoyable stop and I wouldn't mind going back there one day when we have a bit more time.

Orientation over

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 02:18:00 +0000

I finished orientation for my new job just in time for the new semester to start back up (tomorrow). I'll still be shadowing at work for a couple more weeks until I am independent, but thank goodness most of the meetings and training sessions are over. I know it's all important information, but since I've been at the same hospital in a different capacity for the last 8 months, a lot of it was very redundant and therefore, hard to sit through. There was a code on my unit during my orientation phase, which freaked me out a little because I've never been present for a code before, but everyone was pretty efficient and things turned out well. I was told that coding on our unit is a fairly rare event, so hopefully there won't be any more of those any time soon.

So far I really like my new job. It is very fast-paced and busy pretty much all day long, but the time passes so quickly. I am generally on my feet the entire day and the first shift starts at 5:30am, so by the end of the week I was pretty exhausted. I won't be working full time though starting this week, so thankfully I won't be getting up that early every day :)

Chris and I are both looking forward to the near future when we find a place to live and we can get our stuff out of storage and start to settle here in Williamsburg. We feel like we're still in transition (because we are) and though we're thankful to have the time to look for a place, we're ready to be settled. We spent the majority of this weekend looking around town and will hopefully make a decision on something soon. It's been a looong process already and one that I think we're both ready to move on from. Hope everyone enjoyed their three day weekend!

Things I'm enjoying about house sitting

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 23:39:00 +0000

1. Having a garage - especially on days like today when it's pouring rain outside and also on those early mornings. I am very happy that for at least this month, I will not be scraping off my car windshield before I leave for work :)

2. Pretending we are rich - we are living in a big house in a nice neighborhood. I have a garage door clicker and someone even came to clean the place once last week! It's not that hard to make the jump to feeling like we belong here :)

3. The location - I love walking and part of walking around the neighborhood takes you through the vineyards of the nearby winery. It is so pretty, and so far we've had pretty decent weather for walking on the weekends, which has been fantastic. Plus, there is a lake in the backyard, and there is a high probability that Chris and I won't be living on a lake again anytime soon after we leave here, so we should enjoy it while we can ;)

4. Simplicity - it's easy to decide what you're going to wear in the morning when 90% of the clothes you own are in a storage shed across town...though I have to admit, I am starting to get a little tired of the things I've been wearing this last month!

5. Freedom - it has been significantly more difficult than I anticipated to find a place we are happy with renting for the next couple years in our price range. Ideally, we would love to find a place we can stay in until we are ready to buy something, but since that may be a little while, we are very thankful to have these six weeks to really explore everything that is out there right now.

So there you have it - the joys of our house sitting experience! As nice as it is to have this situation available to us though, we can't wait to find a place of our own and settle into town. Hopefully we'll figure all that out in the next week or two!

Other stuff from home

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:21:00 +0000

Random pictures from our last week of the old year, in no particular order, for your enjoyment:

Duncan got a tree for Christmas, so Eric built it, and then actually also built new and bigger platforms for him to use.

Chris's sisters and I made peanut butter balls. They were delicious and probably didn't even last 24 hours. I am already craving them again!

We had to make a run to the grocery store and library one afternoon so Chris let his sister drive to pick up some of the time she needs toward getting her license. It was raining and around dusk, but Chris was very helpful and patient while she was learning - I was very impressed (both by his patience and her driving)!

(No, we did not notice the "no parking" sign in the spot she parked in until we were back home and I had loaded this picture onto the computer!)

We played lots and lots of cards, of various types throughout the week.

Chris went to play Top Golf with his brother. I went to watch, only hit one ball, and hit the cart that drives around to collect the balls! It was a success, if you ask me :)

Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:29:00 +0000

My sister, Lauren, invited us over to her boyfriend's house for a bonfire on New Year's Eve and we were pretty excited because (1) we've never been over to see his place before and (2) he promised me I could drive his bobcat! Well, I drove it and it was pretty awesome! It was like controlling a remote controlled car with a joy stick while you're riding inside of it, AND it can pick up stuff with its giant claw! Definitely the highlight of my night :)

If you want to get an idea of the size of the bonfire, note the bobcat in the bottom right corner of the picture. He had a pile of trees he had to burn up that night.

Afterward, we headed back to my parents' house and watched the rest of Dick Clark's Rockin' NYE. We watch it every year and every year I'm more surprised that he's still staying up past midnight for that show.

I hope you all had fantastic New Year's celebrations and are kicking off the year right. We got home (weird that Williamsburg is now officially "home!") last night after watching the Tribe play up at GMU and have been adjusting to living in someone else's house and getting back to reality! Orientation for my job started today and continues the rest of this week and next, and Chris is starting to figure out what his daily responsibilities are in his new job.

Happy 2012!

Our year in review - 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 22:21:00 +0000

I feel like I say this every year, but this year flew by! Here is a brief glimpse via pictures into our past year (for previous years, click here: 2010, 2009, 2008)

January: We got together with friends for New Years up in the D.C. area to start the year off right and also got a new computer to replace the one I used throughout college and the years following.

February: Chris suffered from his first (and hopefully only) kidney stone :( We went home to celebrate my siblings' birthdays and enjoyed Eric's kitten Duncan (that he got for Christmas)!

March: Went to the CAA tournament and met the Griffin (W&M's new mascot) for the first time. Chris played lots of intramural sports at work.

April: We had a tornado in Farmville and then some crazy hail. We went to visit family for Easter and visited Eric in Bethlehem. We went up to NYC for a wedding.

May: Lauren and Erika graduated from college! We had a weekend reunion with friends. I stopped working at H-SC and started nursing school. We took a trip to Lake of the Woods to catch up with some of Chris' old friends for Memorial Day.

June: Some of our best friends got married up in Pennsylvania, Chris went to the U.S. Open at Congressional, some of our siblings came down to visit for a weekend to hang out at the pool, and another Pindodge went down in the books.

July: We celebrated our 3 year anniversary, saw the final Harry Potter movie (can't believe it!), went to the beach in Delaware with my family, and Chris started working on his MBA.

August: We went to Nashville to visit our cousins, celebrated my birthday, I won an iTouch, we had an earthquake, and my mom and sister came to visit us for the weekend during Hurricane Irene.

September: We went to a wedding for a family friend, celebrated Chris' birthday, and I cracked the windshield of my car driving to and from Richmond (twice).

October: We went home to visit both our families early in the month, went camping and hiking for a weekend with friends, met up with some of my old roommates in Richmond for a quick visit one Sunday, went back to Williamsburg for Homecoming, and went to a haunted house for Halloween.

November: I watched heart surgery, we went home for Thanksgiving, participated in the Turkey Bowl, and we found out Chris got a new job...at W&M, our alma mater!

Deccember: We started packing up our apartment and moved to Williamsburg to start yet another chapter of our lives! Chris started his new job and I got a new job, as well. We spent the last week of the month relaxing at home for Christmas, going to a bowl game and enjoying the holiday season.

As always, thank you to all the wonderful people in our lives that have made this year special, especially all of our friends in Farmville to whom we had to say goodbye over the past month. Our lives would not be anywhere near as joy-filled without all of our family and friends who we look forward to seeing at every opportunity. Here's to 2012!

Military Bowl

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:20:00 +0000

Earlier this week I went to my first bowl game - the Military Bowl! Besides being cold, it was awesome :) Before the game we tailgated, attempting to play corn hole into the wind. Chris' mom made a couple pots of chili and his brother brought a grill and grilled some bratwurst and sausages.

Once we got into the stadium there were parachuters and a fly over from a B2 stealth bomber, which we actually saw before we heard it.

The team we were rooting for (Air Force) lost by one point when they tried for a conversion at the end of the fourth quarter. It was a really high scoring, back-and-forth, and pretty crazy game. I was bundled up about as much as humanly possible so stayed pretty warm except for my fingers and toes.

It was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a day of our Christmas break!

Christmas and the days after

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:58:00 +0000

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and are still enjoying the week of relaxation before real life picks back up next week and we have to start thinking about finding a new place and going back to work. Here are a few pictures from the day (but not ones I took, because when I looked at my camera the day after Christmas, I realized I had pretty much only taken pictures of Duncan):

We've spend the vast majority of the past two days in sweat pants eating and sitting by the fireplace...not a bad way to spend a couple days if you ask me :) Chris and I did end up taking a walk one day in Pohick Bay Regional Park to force ourselves to get dressed and out of the house for an hour. The park is located along the Potomac River, so we walked one of their trails near the water and then found a beach to skip rocks. It was a gorgeous day outside, so I'm glad we got out there before all this rain today.

We hope you all had fantastic days with family and friends, as we did!

First gift of Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 20:24:00 +0000

This video is for Grammy, who sent Duncan (Eric's cat) a Christmas gift this year. We let him open the first gift this morning:

He is so much fun on Christmas morning :)

Merry Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 03:41:00 +0000

Merry Christmas!!!!

"For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given, And the government will be upon His shoulder. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."

-Isaiah 9:6

I was well intentioned about sending out Christmas cards this year, but between packing, moving, changing jobs, etc, well...it just never happened! Next year I anticipate less change and more peace around the holiday season and I will be sure to get them done early :)

We are thrilled to be spending the next week hanging out at our parents' houses with family celebrating the close of another wonderful year. We are so thankful for all the blessings in our life, especially our family and friends, and are excited to see what this next year will bring. Merry Christmas, everyone!

We made it!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 13:47:00 +0000

Now only one week until CHRISTMAS!

Boxes everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:21:00 +0000

We picked up our storage shed this morning and unloaded our cars into it. By the end of this weekend, we will be completely out of our apartment and our stuff will be in this shed until we find a new place! As you can see, we've made a pretty fair dent in packing prior to this weekend. We have gotten confirmation that our apartment here has renters (yay!), so we will start looking for a new place more diligently now that we know we have the freedom.

The house we are staying at for the next month is on a little lake...probably the nicest house we will live in for a loooong time, so I am glad we're getting this opportunity! We'll have to take advantage of the scenery while we have the chance.

We are both getting very excited to spend a week at home relaxing with family...only a week and a half until Christmas!

Move/school/job update

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:58:00 +0000

Well, Chris and I have both finished our semesters, thank goodness! That is just one less thing to have on the agenda during the holidays and this move! I'll be honest, I checked out of my semester while we were home over Thanksgiving break and Chris found out about his new job. It has been hard to get silly assignments accomplished while we have other, more important things on our plate. It was a good semester, but I think we are both glad it's over. While I enjoyed the units I was working on and learned a lot, I am looking forward to spring. It will be interesting to make the switch to a mother/baby unit, where for the most part, people are healthy! I have never had a healthy patient before, so I am looking forward to it.

Chris has had a busy first week of work so far. He's had events in Richmond and D.C., and around that schedule he's been trying to get all the details of his new job like parking passes, computers, phones, etc. figured out. Tonight there are home basketball games we will both be going to, and then I think that's it on the events for the week. I have yet to see his new office, so maybe I'll get around to that this week, too :)

In terms of the move: today I am spending the day in Williamsburg, getting a headstart on research into places to live. We are getting a truck this weekend and moving all of our stuff into storage until we find a new place. We have a lot of our stuff packed up already, so it shouldn't be too big of a process. We were lucky to have found a place to house sit through January, so we are not in too terrible a rush to figure out our new situation :) I think that's about it on the updates!

Employed

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:31:00 +0000

I got a new job! I will be working as a Care Partner in the peri-surgical unit (PSU) at the hospital in Richmond starting the day we get back from our visit home for the holidays. Essentially, I will be helping to get people ready for their surgeries and/or helping monitor them after surgery. I'm excited for this job because I'll be working with patients anywhere from 2 days to 110 years old - so it will be a good opportunity to get a better idea of the population I want to work with in the future.

On a similar note, Chris had his last day of work yesterday. We are both going to miss all his awesome co-workers here. They are wonderful and fun people. He is very excited for his new opportunity though - and he starts on Monday, so it will be a quick turn-around!

We are spending the weekend packing and just took a car load of stuff to donate over to Goodwill. There's nothing like moving to motivate you to pare down on your belongings :)

Trophies

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at things, moving requires you to really assess your possessions and rethink what you are carrying around with you from place to place. With those thoughts in mind, we've been doing our best to go through clothes, closets, cabinets, etc. in order to get rid of the things we haven't used in awhile and aren't likely to use in the future. Well, last weekend Chris found a couple bins of old trophies in our outside storage closet that his parents had brought to us when they converted his room into a guest room and he decided it was time to go through them and let them go.

I mean, I got a couple of these back in my swimming/soccer/softball/basketball days (yes, I was never that great at any one sport so I had to switch around often enough that no one would notice!), but he had so many it was hard to keep them straight.

Also keep in mind, that this display doesn't include any of his numerous swimming plaques that we still have in another bin...

I hate getting rid of sentimental stuff, but to be honest, Chris still has enough high school and college basketball stuff that I don't think he'll miss these ;)

While it was sad to see them go, that is one 25 pound box that I will be happy I don't have to carry in this next move!

We are moving!

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:39:00 +0000

Well, I didn't think I'd be saying this until next summer at the earliest, but WE ARE MOVING AGAIN! Are you surprised? By now, you probably shouldn't be ;)

So where are we going?

Williamsburg!

That's right - we are heading back to where it all began for the two of us. Chris was offered a position at our alma mater and we are hoping to make this new move somewhat permanent! I'll be honest, four moves in 3.5 years (not including the moves into storage sheds, garages, and basements) is more than I ever anticipated, and I would certainly welcome something a bit more on the permanent side.

Chris will be starting his new job a week from tomorrow and we will move all of our stuff as soon as we can get it all packed up (probably a week later). We're planning on renting a storage shed to store everything until we can get our living situation squared away. My commute to Richmond is going to shorten by approximately 50 miles/day - which I am sure you can imagine, I'm thrilled about.

As always though, moves are bittersweet. I have become friends with some wonderful women here, and I will miss our church and especially my Bible study I've been in while we were here. I'm sad I won't be here when friends' babies are born and be able to participate in friends' holiday parties. Chris has really loved his boss and co-workers and they will be missed, as well. We are both very excited for this opportunity, though, so we're packing up and heading out. We would love and appreciate prayers for all the details, because, as always, there are lots of little details to work out in a move.

Early morning

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 22:39:00 +0000

I have never applied for any healthcare jobs before in my life. I've applied and interviewed for a host of other types of jobs, but never anything in the healthcare setting. Well, this week I applied and interviewed for my first healthcare position and I'll be honest - I was pretty lost!

The application process was similar to every other job you can imagine, but once I scheduled my interview, I blanked. What do you wear to an interview when you know your interviewer is going to be wearing scrubs? I had a psycho-education presentation the morning before my interview at one of Richmond's behavioral health sites, so since I was already going to be dressed nicely, I figured I'd just go as-is. I'm still hoping that was the right move because as I guessed, my interviewer and everyone else I met was in scrubs.

The woman wanted to schedule a follow-up/more hands-on interview, so I figured I would try for today (Thursday) since I was going to be in Richmond anyway. I believe her exact words were: "Great, does 5:30 tomorrow work for you?" I usually get done with clinical around 4pm on Thursdays, so I told her I'd be there - no problem. Then she said something along the lines of "Wonderful, I get here by 4:30 every morning, so come find me up front when you get here." That is when I realized my follow-up interview was at 5:30 am, not 5:30 pm. Yeah.

So this morning I got up at 3:30, hopped in the car, was given some scrubs from the vending machine, and started my "interview" at 5:30. I'm sure all of you out there with small children that regularly start your day at oh'dark-thirty are laughing at me. But I have at least learned to be appropriately clear from here on out when scheduling my interviews, as it turns out, normal rules don't apply. Craaazy.

Thanksgiving and the Turkey Bowl

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:09:00 +0000

Happy Thanksgiving! I know it's a bit late and everyone has already headed home to start the work week again tomorrow morning, but better late than never. We had a great few days visiting our families. We did a lot of card playing, eating, and hanging out in sweatpants. Chris and I have tons and tons to be thankful for, so I love celebrating Thanksgiving every year. Among other stuff, we are thankful for:
-Our wonderful families
-The opportunity to further our educations
-Living close enough that we are able to see our families every year for the holidays
-Awesome and supportive friends
-Our health

As we do every year, we had the annual Turkey Bowl (2010, 2009, 2008). Chris tied his record from 2009 with a 43-yarder. I hit one from 12 yards this year - three short of my personal best. I'm going to blame it on the fact that we played flag football the day before and my legs were already sore before we tried to kick this year ;)

I didn't take too many pictures this year because we were so busy relaxing :) Hope you all had fantastic Thanksgiving weekends, too!

Clinical demystified

noreply@blogger.com (Katie) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:15:00 +0000

The other day I was talking with a friend and she asked what I did on a typical clinical day in the hospital. I explained to her that, in general, I'm assigned a patient and I provide the care for that patient that day. She seemed pretty surprised that patients would be okay with students providing a significant portion of their care and expressed some safety concerns, so I thought I'd take a minute to explain how this clinical situation works for those of you unfamiliar with it.

So, lest you think we students descend on the hospital in droves, pass medications willy-nilly, document our whimsies in patients' medical records, and perform whatever procedures we come across unassisted, I am here to tell you: that is not the case!

First, we register for the unit/floor we want in groups of 8-10 and each group is headed up by a preceptor. The preceptor stays on the unit whenever we are on the unit and is available for help, questions, supervision, etc. The patients on the floor are assigned unit RNs, just like on any normal day. Each of us students are assigned one patient (or two on a slower day), and we make sure that when we go into the patient's room in the morning to do our assessments, we inform them that we are their student nurse, and that they have an RN, as well. Patients at this hospital are told that it is a teaching hospital upon admission, and though they do have the right to refuse care from a student, most don't. The thing is, we are typically not the first students these patients encounter. This hospital also trains medical students, PT and OT students, pharmacy students, dental students, NP and CNS students, PA students, etc, etc, etc.

In effect, getting a nursing student to manage your care for the day can be a blessing. RNs on our unit typically have anywhere from 3-6 patients, and we get 1-2. Our patients get a lot of attention, and in addition to us looking over and questioning their orders, they also have our preceptor and their RN reviewing them. Everything we document as students is read over and verified by the preceptor or RN before it becomes an official part of the patient's medical record, and any procedures we perform are typically either supervised, or performed while assisting another professional. Before we can give any medication, we have to know its class and therapeutic range, the action of the drug, intended effects, side effects, and exactly why our patient is taking it (among other things). In general, there are a lot of people around to make sure these patients get very effective and safe care.

So next time you get a student in a teaching hospital, just remember that it's not the worst thing in the world :) We're looking out for you, others are looking out for you, but most importantly, ask questions and look out for yourself.